Joe Slovo residents say they can sleep a little easier now that police have arrested a man in connection with a mass shooting in the area that claimed five lives.
According to provincial spokesman for the National Prosecution Authority, Eric Ntabazalila, 26-year-old Thulani Mbija appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday October 19 on five counts of murder.
“His case has been postponed to Monday October 26 for bail information and then for bail application on November 4. The state will oppose the bail application,” Mr Ntabazalila said.
Mr Mbija was arrested last Friday.
Provincial police spokeswoman, Brigadier Novela Potelwa, said further arrests were likely to follow.
Police launched a manhunt after six men shot and killed five people and injured one woman in Joe Slovo on the night of Thursday October 8.
The men entered a home in Sekowa Street, looking for someone. When they couldn’t find them, they shot and killed a woman and hit another woman over the head with a blunt object.
The killers then went to a nearby house in Dada Street and shot dead three men and a woman.
Phatiswa Ngcobo, a Joe Slovo resident, said she was relieved to hear police had made an arrest.
“I couldn’t sleep since the news of the shootings a few weeks ago. I still don’t understand how people could be so comfortable and go on a rampage and kill all those people. We hope the one that’s arrested will co-operate so that everyone involved will face justice,” she said.
Joe Slovo community leader Noxolo Mayeki said: “We’re happy to hear that there’s been a breakthrough in the case and hope that more arrests will be made. However, I can’t say we’ll sleep easier because just last week, we heard of a woman who was stabbed to death by her relative in Democracy Way.
“He stabbed her with a screwdriver, and buried her bloody clothes with the murder weapon. He fled to Khayelitsha where he buried his own bloody clothes but was tracked down and arrested on the same day,” she said.
Captain Madyibi confirmed that a 43-year-old man was arrested in Harare, Khayelitsha, for the murder of the woman in Joe Slovo.
“He appeared in court on Friday October 16 and remains in custody until his next court appearance on Thursday October 22,” she said.